Tag Archives: NSA

CNN reports: A former government contractor accused of leaking confidential information to the media has been sentenced to more than five years in prison. Reality Winner, 26, was accused of taking a report about a 2016 Russian military intelligence cyberattack from the NSA facility where she worked and sending it to an online news outlet. Winner initially faced 10 years …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: Reality Winner, the first person to be prosecuted by the Trump administration for leaking sensitive government information, pleaded guilty Tuesday to sending to the news media a top-secret National Security Agency report about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Her plea agreement calls for her to serve five years and three months behind bars, though …

AOL News reports: Press Secretary Sean Spicer will address reporters at the White House on Tuesday in the wake of a leak involving a top-secret NSA document. The information that was leaked to The Intercept reported that hackers connected to the Russian military attempted to breach American voting systems in the days before the 2016 presidential election. The Department of …

The Associated Press reports: The Kremlin has denied claims from a U.S. government intelligence report that Russian hackers had attacked at least one U.S. voting software supplier before last year’s presidential election. The classified National Security Agency report, which was published online on Monday by The Intercept, said Russian military intelligence agency GRU attacked the software company and sent spear-phishing …

Her real actual name is Reality Winner. The Washington Examiner reports: A 25-year-old federal contractor is facing charges she leaked a classified National Security Agency document to a news outlet in May. The charges against Reality Leigh Winner came about an hour after the publication of a story based on an NSA document detailing Russian attempts to hack American voting …

The Week reports: Adm. Michael Rogers, head of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, spoke at a Wall Street Journal forum on Tuesday, and much of the focus of his discussion with WSJ Deputy Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Blumenstein was about joining government and business to fight the scourge of cyber crime. The number of hackers is “so large …

The Intercept reports: Edward Snowden isn’t just a hashtag anymore. The NSA whistleblower joined Twitter on Tuesday, using the @snowden Twitter handle. Snowden, who has lived in Russia since turning over a trove of top-secret documents to reporters more than two years ago, has remained in the public eye thanks to frequent appearances and interviews using video links and sometimes …

NPR reports: The Senate has approved the USA Freedom Act, which will alter the way U.S. agencies conduct surveillance and gather data. A final vote on the bill came late Tuesday afternoon, after amendments to the bill failed. President Obama can now sign the bill into law as soon as it reaches him, after an expedited enrollment process. Sen. Rand …

Sen. Rand Paul is claiming victory over last night’s expiration of several major portions of the Patriot Act, but he may be merely grandstanding as the Senate is expected to quickly reauthorize the expired laws. The Senate entered a debate period late Sunday on the Patriot Act that pushed beyond the midnight deadline. With the debate ongoing, that effectively ends …

Sen. Rand Paul said yesterday that he plans to filibuster against the impending reauthorization vote for the Patriot Act. “I’m going to lead the charge in the next couple of weeks as the Patriot Act comes forward,” he said in a one-on-one interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader. “We will be filibustering. We will be trying to stop it. …

Via NBC News: Snowden spoke to the “Last Week Tonight” host in Moscow, where he has been for more than a year since being charged with espionage after leaking classified information regarding the NSA’s extensive surveillance programs. Oliver asked Snowden to explain the implications of NSA surveillance on racy personal photos. “The good news is there’s no program named ‘the …

Via the Guardian: He has tackled the Kennedy assassination and the Watergate break-in, the Vietnam conflict and the Bush administration’s “war on terror”. Now the Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone is set to whip up fresh controversy with his adaptation of The Snowden Files, an account of the ongoing NSA scandal written by the Guardian journalist Luke Harding. Stone’s thriller will …

Gay journalist Glenn Greenwald returned to the United States today for the first time since breaking the Edward Snowden story. Some have called for his arrest as Snowden’s alleged co-conspirator. Greenwald himself said he expected to be detained at once, but he exited JFK airport without incident. TIME reports on the reason for today’s visit: Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, …

Fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden skyped into a SXSW panel today via seven proxy servers, a tactic probably taken to cloak his location. NPR has the story: Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked large amounts of classified information about the agency’s electronic surveillance programs, spoke via video to a sympathetic audience at South By Southwest …

“I’m not going to dwell on Mr. Snowden’s actions or his motivations. I will say that our nation’s defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation’s secrets. If any individual who objects to government policy can take it into their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will not be able to keep …

Mediaite recaps one of the meow-rich GOP infighting moments we’ve seen in quite a while: Appearing on Fox News Channel on Sunday, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) defended the National Security Agency from attacks on its intelligence gathering practices. He specifically said the charges made against the NSA by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are “lies” and that he “doesn’t deserve to …

From the Times editorial board: Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to …

CNN host Don Lemon and crackpot freak show Larry Klayman got into it last night. Klayman has previously received media attention for saying during a government shutdown rally that Obama needs “to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up,” leading to a particularly contentious fight with Martin Bashir. …